Not a ton going on lately. Trying to rack up miles to complete the break-in so I can finally tune for power. About a month ago Brian stopped by* and got me running on a MAP tune. The car has been much more drive-able since then even if we weren't able to figure out the transient lean spots in the short amount of time he was here.

On Brian's suggestion I moved the MAP sensor (again) so it was as high as possible in the engine bay and oriented correctly.

A while back I also swapped the Banzai alternator pulley for a Racing Beat one.

The belt spacing on the Banzai pulley didn't match the Racing Beat main pulley or the OEM water pump pulley and I think that was causing wear on the belts. I was also concerned about the spacing of the Banzai pulley since I had to place the OEM washer behind the pulley for it to clear the alternator. Alternator output is down with the Racing Beat pulley to around 14V max.

I also realized I don't have any decent shots of the car in its finished form. I took a couple crappy pics in the garage last night.

I'm at 600 miles on the break in. Being limited to 5000 RPM is no fun since it really wants to take off at that point. Currently, the biggest issues are:

1. Transient lean/rich conditions. We maxed out the transient enrich settings in ECU Manager but the car is still going lean immediately after a large/quick throttle movement. The fuel catches up about a second later and then goes rich. Unfortunately this can cause issues during quick open-close throttle events like being stuck in traffic and hitting a large bump in the road, or blipping the throttle in neutral. I've managed to flood the engine a number of times this way.

2. Leaking water pump. It's leaking from the weep hole. I have a replacement. I've just been lazy as it's an annoying job to do. Despite the mess, it doesn't appear to have lost any appreciable amount of water.

3. Noisy transmission. I'm getting a good amount of bearing noise in neutral with the clutch engages (pedal out). I'm pretty sure this means the input bearing is on its way out. I get similar noise in 4th gear, which I think is the same symptom. New bearings have been ordered. I'll probably get around to this and the water pump over the Winter.

*Has anyone heard from Brian lately? I owe him for stopping by but haven't been able to reach him in several weeks.

I think it was Ted who theorized, at one point, that my cooling system may be "too efficient." I went for a drive over the weekend when ambient temperatures were in the mid-to-upper-40's. Despite driving 25 miles in about 30 minutes it felt like the car never really warmed up. My cruising oil temperatures would drop below 140 degrees (sensor below oil filter). It wasn't until idling in the driveway for ten minutes afterward that I got the temperature up to 170. Usually my driving oil temperatures are between 150-170 degrees on more temperate days but I don't think I've seen more than 175.

I also found out my catch can line has been plugged all along. It's fixed now, and I didn't notice any immediate differences in how the car drives, but I have no idea what can of effects that could cause.